Friday, December 16, 2005

An important decision for journalists from the Central London Employment Tribunal.

The tribunal has ruled that ABC News unfairly dismissed one of its correspondents, London-based Richard Gizbert, because he refused to go to Iraq.

"This ruling amounts to a vindication for an individual, it amounts to an indictment for one particular company, ABC News/Disney, and it's a warning to other news organisations that your voluntary war zone policy has to mean what it says," Mr Gizbert said.

I'm glad to say that in my organisation we have a voluntary war zone policy that means exactly that.

Staff aren't exactly lining up to be sent on assignment to places like the Baghdad bureau and this can, at times, be problematic for those responsible for organising the deployments.

But crucially it means that every person sent off to work in a dangerous place is there of their own accord -- and not because a shiny-arsed manager has ordered them to go.